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Michael Denzel Smith as well as contributing writer to the nation
magazine now we're far with the nation Institute the nation dot com is most
recent piece
tree von Martin and black manhood on trial
michael welcome to the program better every time thanks for joining us
a giving your take on what happened over the weekend
a in all I really am surprised at how angry I am about this because
I saw it coming and knew it was going to happen I knew he was going to get off
and wat in that moment when I I finally saw the word
some other than that job she flashed across the TV screen.
it hit me up all
just add one and the emotion as it hit me there
you know a 17-year-old kid dead
and no one is going to be held accountable for and their
I mean through no fault of his own a 17-year-old is
dead n no person is going to be held responsible
what are the experiences in your life that causes
you too react to this emotionally am
I A Raja I am a black man in America I mean
I could have been trail on Mar in someone could have
spelling to me to be a correct and decided to follow me
to could for
me to shoot me in my chest
in then turned around and said that I was the aggressor
embed in have no proof no
no way to dispute their claims because
ill you be I'd be dead and that's exactly what happened
travel more and that's what happened said young black boys in this country
happens to black girls in this country is that
our lives are so devalued that
we'll people show us they can go to the police
and say there were self defense and the police
take their word for it and now even arrest them
and so there's a mass mobilization a thousands of people across the country
calling for that arrest
and there in this at your defense lawyers
came out was the most a racist fences
I'll for as a killer that ever seen
any you walk free
have no culpability no responsibility
and gifted died in fact that you use to
to *** that child I wrote an op-ed thats
over truth out out or right now the headline is
Zimmerman verdict the slave Patrol is alive and well
in flora and it's about how
a starting in the Finn the sixteenth century the United States really
and it going right up until after the Civil War
white man 17 to 47 years old
were required whether they own slaves or not in my
in many of the southern states were required to be members %uh the slave
patrols they were also known as state militias
it's the reason why the Second Amendment says not necessary to the security of a
free State rather than a free nation
this was a compromise the James Madison put in at the request to Patrick Henry
the largest slave holder and the state of Virginia
and they they
wet they were constantly on the lookout for for slaves who were
quote not where they're supposed to be end quote and
I submitted the article that that mentality
%uh the slave patrols and those names overtly one away during Reconstruction
and we're simply replaced by the Klu Klux ***
and apparently at least in george Zimmerman's mine have been replaced now
by
in some cases neighborhood patrols that that
at that mentality love afro-americans being quote not in their place or
in the wrong place and quote is something the typically is not applied
to white people
and is alive and well in this country and i got a whole buncha why people
jumping all over me sayin
that I have gone over that over the edge over the rail on being a reverse racist
bloody body blah
I'm curious your thoughts on that no I think you need a ride on the air that I
think they're
would would we don't yet in this country that we have learned the lessons of
history we have been absorbed the lessons of history
with simply by product that history we have been
we have been taking into account the way that racism
is still in to this country the way their racism
built this country in their racist ideology
still perpetuates itself for the day
and yes it's you can for all alive from
you know wave captures down
few redirection justice seeker
ok today yes you absolutely K
because the the through I is
black people you do not belong here you work now
welcome you here unless you feel certain mold unless you spit a certain
idea unless you are working towards something better benefits white
supremacy
have the bottom line it seems to me is the
the that the that the core message
that this verdict sands to
any african-american young person somebody
you know 810 twelve-years-old you know just just
coming up in the world just figuring out how the world works
is that they are
the all they are the outsiders they are the they
their eighth that the presumption of innocence that we learn about
in civics class that is you know
supposedly built in the fifth the moment applies to white people does not apply
to them
absolutely i mean I am guilty until proven
not guilty payment ever said there is no in a sense there's just you know that
guilty for the ball next
will happen with george Zimmerman is 3 by Mark
in the West put one trial from the very moment that george Zimmerman's
killed him in the police sold up to the *** scene
tray by Marin was put on trial also resolved s
because there was a presumption a guilt
that you know triple-a more must have done
some saying he had to have I
provoked george Zimmerman he had to have threatened jordan 11
in some way for george Zimmerman's happen that way
footage it's bad racist ideology that is right
run through this entire case that we have just week
Padawan wanted to brush aside as a the nation at large in just try to talk
about
the fact that a 17-year-old was dead well the reason that 17-year-old dead
with veg or general presumption
guilty something where he could improve any star eighty
with seek it out with against the advice
%uh the operator that he was talking to like 80
Ben no wow just cuz i been sayin from
from the day this from day one that this trial
it has been all about race and what
I don't get is why the corporate media in this country
has been going so far i mean bending themselves and pretzels to say
it's not about race was with her because
I mean you know disagree with him on a other number
things as I had my Attorney General Eric Holder was right way jean
when he said we are a nation of cowards three are we r
street as having that conversation we'd all
wouldn't which what's more important to
specifically why people is to that be called a recess rather than to actually
deal with racism it they want to avoid being called the races and so they want
to avoid the
the conversation a race at all costs
they guess that's how we do we don't ignore the problem away
strategist a allows its just fester and grow and we continue to have
tray weimar in time the streets I mean you
Justin just not even a month after Trayvon Martin
I which killed murdered rich your boy who was shot and killed by an off-duty
police officer in Chicago
skills at the it does last year Jordan Davis
what it was I can be completed friends with lifting
you picked loudly in the hospital white person
at the as is that have been funny cause
guide me in the car with him know when we work for smokers
yep hyper thing that happened
your you are absolutely right Michael we are out I michael Denzel Smith you can
read all about it the nation dot com hand to say a mess is the Thom Hartmann
program
the nation dot com the article Trayvon Martin in black manhood on trial
Michael thank you so much for being with us today they keep our
will be back